Faced with a cold front? That means it's time to turn on the oven and melt some cheese (or chocolate).

New York, where Epi is based, isn't Florida, but you know what else isn't Florida? Florida. Not these days, anyway. I was just there last week, and I shivered—bitterly—the whole time.

What am I talking about? The cold. It's everywhere this year. It's north, it's south, it's east. And if it's not exactly snowing everywhere, it's probably raining and flooding and as full of wind as the presidential debates. (See what I did there? That's political humor. On a food site.)

There's an easy way to combat the cold, and that's to turn on the oven, cook stuff, and then eat that stuff while it's still hot. If you're me, you're going to start with these spaghetti squash boats, which is basically a cheesy (and a little spicy) lasagna stuffed into a vegetable (#health).

On to dessert. People who eat ice cream in the winter, I have no idea what's wrong with you. (Although there are ways to make it acceptable.) You should be cranking up that oven and eating warm chocolate chip cookies instead. And guess what? Our test kitchen just went through 18 batches—18!—to develop the best cookie of all time.